Stanbic Bank Ghana has urged small and medium enterprises to adopt structured practices and move beyond survival, at a two day clinic in Tamale.
The 2026 SME Clinic, themed “From Survival to Scale: Building SMEs that Endure,” brought together entrepreneurs, business advisers and institutional partners. Stanbic ran the event with KPMG and the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), and it drew strong participation from the AGI Women in Business network.
Opening the clinic, Dinah Kaleo-Bioh, the bank’s Head of Business and Commercial Banking, said Ghanaian entrepreneurs are resilient but many are held back by weak internal systems and limited access to the right knowledge. She said small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for more than 90% of businesses in Ghana, about 70% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and nearly 85% of jobs, yet many operate informally and struggle to grow.
Sessions covered enterprise positioning, financial management and building reliable operational systems, which facilitators said often determine whether a firm stays small or scales. Gloria Bempong, Head of Enterprise Banking, outlined the bank’s services for smaller firms, from tailored accounts and cash management to financing, digital platforms and advisory support.
Head of Business Development Safoa Appietu-Ankrah told participants that most businesses collapse from internal weakness rather than outside pressure. “SMEs do not fail suddenly; they fail structurally over time,” she said. She pointed to the Stanbic Business Incubator as a way to help firms formalise, build structure and improve access to finance and markets.
The clinic forms part of Stanbic’s Beyond Banking agenda, which the lender says aims to strengthen the fundamentals of businesses rather than offer finance alone. Stanbic said its continued focus on Tamale reflects the city’s growing role as a commercial hub in northern Ghana.
